Katelyn Davis joins the Detroit Regional Chamber as director of MICHauto. In this role, she will support and lead planning and execution for MICHauto, as the statewide automotive and mobility industry association, and the organization’s growth as an integral part of Forward Detroit, the Chamber’s economic development initiative.

Davis’ seven-year career has been dedicated to Michigan’s automotive industry. Most recently she served as a corporate affairs and communications specialist with Yazaki North America, Inc., where she was responsible for the company’s internal and external communications and corporate marketing strategy and implementation. Prior to that, she worked for WPP’s GTB (formerly Team Detroit) on the communications team at Ford Motor Co.

“We are extremely pleased to have Katelyn join the MICHauto team. Her background and experience in the auto industry, combined with her expertise in marketing and communications, made the perfect match and will be critical to achieving our mission and goals,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MICHauto and vice president of automotive and mobility initiatives for the Chamber.

Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising and public relations from Grand Valley State University and completed graduate studies in new media communications at Wayne State University.

In addition, Davis is an acting board member for the Automotive Public Relations Council (APRC) and played an active role on MICHauto’s Awareness Committee.

A few years ago I planned and executed my first large scale social media campaign at Yazaki. It started off slow but each year it picked up steam as we kept evolving our tactics and growing along with technology and trends. #InternYazaki has been a labor of love, which is why I am so excited to announce it has been chosen by PR Daily as the best User-Generated Content Social Marketing Campaign!

Employer branding effort showcases one of the nation's oldest industries as desirable career destination

Michigan-based organizations supporting the auto industry have an employee pipeline to fill, but they face an exodus of talented workers attracted to tech companies and startups located outside the state. One of these auto suppliers, Yazaki North America, took on the challenge, and its efforts have won it first place in the “User-Generated Content” category of PR Daily’s 2016 Content Marketing Awards.

Yazaki North America created a social media-based employer branding effort that let its interns—drawn from local universities—share their internship experiences alongside the hashtag #internYazaki as brand ambassadors. The range of content these stories created sparked surprisingly high social media interest.

Some interns shared photos of themselves with executives or from testing facilities. While others shared insights into their daily activities as interns. The common thread was their newfound interest in one of the country’s oldest and technologically advanced industries. Over the summer #InternYazaki hashtag appeared on Twitter and Instagram over 1,300 times, with each post highlighting a dimension of being a Yazaki intern and being the future of automotive.

Before long, the movement took root on Snapchat, as interns participated in a takeover of Yazaki’s official account—an increasingly popular use of Snapchat by companies—to give viewers a behind the scenes look at their journey as they experience everything the auto industry has to offer. Each intern takeover produced an average of 50 new followers.

Traffic to Yazaki’s website increased by 35 percent each month; the campaign generated 54,000 impressions and (more importantly) an increase in internship applications.

The campaign peaked when several interns were invited to attend a conference where they provided live content and fresh-faced commentary for an automotive media publication. At the conference, which was mostly attended by automotive executives, the Yazaki interns quickly gathered attention spawning Q&A sessions about Millennials and their thoughts on recruiting, work culture, and the future of the automotive industry.

This month I was recognized for my active role in the automotive community and was invited to to join MICHauto's Awareness Committee.

MICHauto is a key economic development initiative of the Detroit Regional Chamber, dedicated to promoting, retaining and growing the automotive industry in Michigan. The program serves as the unified voice of Michigan’s automotive industry, providing a platform for various automotive stakeholders to collaborate on matters related to advocacy, awareness, business attraction, and talent attraction and retention.

The MICHauto Awareness Committee is comprised of selected marketing, communications, and public relations professionals from within the automotive industry. The committee serves as a consultative body, engaged to strategize and design an annual automotive and mobility awareness campaign for the state of Michigan. The objectives of the awareness campaign are to promote Michigan’s automotive assets to automotive companies and site selectors, improve Michigan’s public perception of the automotive and mobility industry, and attract engineering talent to Michigan’s automotive and mobility industry.

Our priorities are to:

Consult the Michigan Economic Development Coalition (MEDC) on the outcome and future plan of the Pure Michigan automotive awareness campaign, leveraging such information in MICHauto’s own efforts

Yesterday I was pleased to find out that I was voted in as the newest board member of the Automotive Public Relations Council (APRC). This is an organization that I have been a part of since I first started my career in automotive. Through APRC I have had the pleasure of meeting and making connections with some great people in the industry and experiencing the amazing things this industry has to offer.

The APRC is a network of public relations professionals dedicated to the advancement of the automotive industry. The APRC serves as a networking and information resource with the unique focus of finding best practices for promoting the industry and building relationships with the media and OEM customers.

I am very excited to announce that I will be adding the ability to design and host custom Snapchat Geofilters starting in July 2016.

There was a time not too long ago when Snapchat was touted as an app solely for "the kids." The majority of people believed it was a millennial fad that would be gone as quickly as it appeared. However the reality is: Snapchat is a social media powerhouse.

Snapchat is currently home to 100 million active daily users accounting for over 10 billion daily video views, resulting in a $300 million revenue target for 2016. Of those users 65% are 18 to 24 year olds use the app

And in February 2016 Snapchat, recognizing it's power status, began allowing the public to create and submit geofilters for use by everyone with an account. This means that those interesting -- and sometimes funny -- add-ons you see when people snap you, can now be created and published for you whether your an major brand, small business or the future bride wanting to celebrate her nuptials in social style.

How It Works

Snapchat recognizes its users location via the device's GPS and then load the appropriate filters for that area. For example: If you're at a beach, a city center, or at an event and are snapping away on Snapchat you should see filters specific to that location (if any have been created).

Celebrate in Style

Weddings, Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties, birthday parties, holidays, family reunions and any other type of event or gathering isn't complete without a custom Snapchat filter. These filters can be designed to match your event's theme or motif and easily (and affordably) submitted to cover the geographical area and time in which your event is taking place. For example, your wedding filter can be set up to be available to the people within the confines of your venue during the ceremony and reception. This is also a great alternative to a photo booth. People using their own phones to take their own photos!

Brand Awareness for Businesses of All Sizes

Whether your a big brand or a small local business, Shapchat filters are a great way for you to engage with your audience. Not only are Snapchat filters a fun way to interact with your customers at your next big event, they can also be used as a sales ploy. For example: Your company is heading to a conference, and you are looking for that special something to impress potential clients -- to reach them in a completely understated way. You want an additional touch point to reach these potential clients before they even get to your booth or see your signage. Snapchat can help!

Affordable Option for Every Occasion

If you're looking at using Snapchat filters as an advertising ploy, the cost per impression is insanely cheap compared to other social media channels -- so cheap that even small businesses can afford it. And if you're looking at a custom filter for your wedding, family reunion, or social gathering, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how affordable the it is!

See How Your Filter Preforms

Are analytics your thing? Or are you just curious about how many of your guests used the filter? No problem! We can run metrics that will show how often your filter has been used while it was available.

If you're interested in having a custom Snapchat filter created for your business or upcoming event, please contact me and I would be happy to talk through the process with you!

I'm very proud and excited to announce that myself, along with my Ford Compensation and Benefits team, have been awarded by Ragan Communication with PR Daily's Best Human Resource Communication Video Award for our creation of Ford Motor Company's Navigating Annual Enrollment.

The Navigating Annual Enrollment video was created to reach Ford's more than 27,000 employees during the 14-day open enrollment period for health care and benefits. The video's sole purpose is to educate and entertain - edutainment.

Communicators have a hard time making employees sit up and pay attention to benefits news. And annual enrollment is one of the toughest nuts to crack, filled with officious-sounding plan names and bureaucracy-inspired jargon. Employees who don’t pay attention during the enrollment period often wind up with irrevocable problems during the year.

The video’s approach was conceived to replace prior years’ longer in-person presentation sessions that attracted only 11% of Ford's U.S. salaried employees covered by Ford’s benefits plans. The Navigating Annual Enrollment video was accessed more than 22,500 times during the two-week enrollment period — an astounding 83% of the targeted population.

I'm very proud and excited to announce that myself, along with my Ford Compensation and Benefits team, have been awarded Ragan Communication's Most Improved Digital Publication Design Award for our reinvention of Ford's Benefits & Enrollment eGuide for the 2016 benefits year.

Katelyn Davis, a 2010 graduate of Grand Valley’s Advertising and Public Relations program, has been immersed in Michigan’s native automotive industry working in public relations as well as corporate communications for the last six years. Katelyn also acts as a

I'm very proud and excited to announce that myself, along with my Ford Compensation and Benefits team, have been awarded Ragan Communication's Best Benefits Communication Award for our creation of Ford's Benefits eGuide.

Today I was named Top Social Media Reporter by Ragan Communications at their annual Social Media for Public Relations and Corporate Communications conference in Buena Vista, Florida. The award was presented to me by President & CEO Mark Ragan for my extensive coverage of the conference and its speakers in real-time and across multiple social media platforms.

A communications professional specializing in public relations and social media strategy, management, and content writing.